Starbucks boss changes menu to win back customers

Starbucks’ new boss has promised to simplify its “overly complex menu” as the coffee chain tries to win back customers and boost falling sales.

Brian Niccol said the company needed to make a “fundamental change” and said it would review its prices.

The figures showed Starbucks customers have cut back on spending as rising living costs hit their budgets, particularly in China.

However, Mr Niccol also acknowledged that there were problems in his stores such as staff shortages and customer shortages.

Starbucks declined to confirm or deny whether menu changes and price adjustments will apply to the UK.

The company said global sales fell 7% between July and September. The decline was even more dramatic in China, where sales fell 14% over the same period as the local economy stalled.

“Despite our increased investments, we have not been able to change the trajectory of our traffic decline,” said Rachel Ruggeri, Starbucks chief financial officer.

Months earlier, she said the company was seeing signs of revival.

To improve declining sales, Mr. Niccol promised to “go back to Starbucks.”

“We will simplify our overly complex menu, adjust our pricing architecture and ensure every customer feels like Starbucks is worth it every time they visit,” he said.

He added: “We need to refine mobile ordering and payment so it doesn’t overwhelm the cafe experience.”

Randeep Somel, fund manager at financial services firm L&G, said a cheaper and less complicated menu could help speed up service.

“At peak times the queues are simply too big. So if you simplify the menu it could improve customer throughput,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

Mr. Niccol, who previously ran the Mexican grocery chain Chipotle, was brought into Starbucks to help turn around the business.

But He was criticized for his plan to commute nearly 1,000 miles (1,600 km) from his family home in Newport Beach, California, to the company’s headquarters in Seattle on a company jet.

Critics saw this as a contradiction to the company’s public stance on environmental issues.

Starbucks is expected to release its full results next week. The company’s shares fell 4% on Tuesday as the company suspended its financial guidance for next year due to “current business conditions.”

Former Starbucks boss Laxman Narasimhan, who was fired after a year and a half in the job, had tried to revive the chain’s menu.

He said he wants to add new items like boba drinks and a pesto egg sandwich over the summer and speed up service in stores.

However, weeks later he left.

Starbucks has also struggled with protests and boycott campaigns on social media related to the Israel-Gaza war and a union struggle in the United States.

A union that works to organize baristas in the US posted a message on social media shortly after the October 7 Hamas attack expressing “solidarity” with Palestine.

The post, which the union said was not approved by union leaders, spread quickly despite being removed and sparked backlash against the coffee giant.

Starbucks said it disagreed with the union’s statement. She described her official position as condemning “violence in the region.”